Isaacs Faces 5 New Federal Obscenity Counts

LOS ANGELES — A federal grand jury has indicted fetish filmmaker Ira Isaacs on five more felony obscenity counts for videos allegedly distributed as recent as two weeks ago, XBIZ has learned.

The additional indictments just prior to his federal obscenity case slated for May in Los Angeles was a surprise for Isaacs' defense counsel Roger Jon Diamond, who learned of them a week ago after receiving a letter from a Justice Department attorney.

"We haven't been formally served on the superseding indictments," Diamond told XBIZ.

The films were allegedly mailed by Isaacs' companies to consumers between January and the first week of April.

"This is an attack on the adult entertainment industry in Southern California," Diamond said. "With the additional counts, the grand jury indictment will be more time consuming. It's also a waste of taxpayer money, the whole thing.

"The government flew, at taxpayers' expense, a Washington-based Justice Department attorney to Los Angeles. That attorney, who probably never even viewed the film, likely approached the grand jury in Los Angeles and briefly outlined the movie and quickly got more indictments."

Isaacs originally was charged in 2007 with federal obscenity violations over the mail distribution of “Gang Bang Horse — ‘Pony Sex Game’” and “Mako’s First Time Scat,” as well as “Hollywood Scat Amateurs No. 7.”

But his 2008 trial was put on hold after the recusal of Judge Alex Kozinski, who recused himself after public controversy surrounded his involvement in this case. During Isaacs's 2008 prosecution, the Los Angeles Times broke a story that Kozinski had been maintaining a website that showed pornographic images.

Kozinski, a judicial conservative and noted advocate of free speech, admitted to the Times that he was aware of the material on his site but later shifted partial responsibility for the images to his adult son.

Diamond said that Isaacs probably will be arraigned on the new counts during pre-trial proceedings at U.S. District Court in Los Angeles on May 2.